Human
by InsaneShadowFan
Summary: On his way home from work late at night, Kaiba happens to find a stray animal on the streets. He then decides to share some of his story with the creature, while feeding it his leftovers from lunch. Humor in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Human**

_Revised: 7/29/09_

_InsaneShadowFan: Christ, it's been a while. I really should be updating my other fics, huh? But since it's been so long, and because I wanted to try and develop this idea that I had into a one-shot, I figured it could wait. Read and Enjoy, friends._

_o o o o o_

The streets were empty, save for the litter that the cold wind blew across the roads, and the few neon lights that flickered hopefully in an attempt to attract customers to a 24-hour convenience store. It was three o'clock a.m. in Domino City, and there was a steady, dreary drizzle that cast the block with a gloomy sort of haze. And it was through this haze that Seto Kaiba strode briskly through, clad in his rain-proof black trench coat (a la custom Giorgio Armani), with one hand grasping the handle of his umbrella, the other tightly holding his leather briefcase. The deadline to an important project was in two days, forcing Kaiba to work overtime, and despite his younger brother's insistence that Seto should take a limousine home at such a late hour, Kaiba preferred to walk home. Any potential muggings or attacks were easily managed by the pistol he kept handy on his person at all times.

It was at one particular intersection, the 4th and Main Street junction, that Kaiba, waiting at a pedestrian crossing (despite the fact that absolutely no cars were on the road) heard a faint sound somewhere around his feet. Looking down, he saw that a fast food bag was stuck in the gutter. Nothing out of the usual, thought Kaiba stiffly, glancing at the light, which seemed to be taking an obnoxiously long time to change considering the lack of traffic at the time. Incompetent engineers. He could do a better job designing the traffic light system. _Anybody_could do a better job.

The fast food bag made the sound again. But this time it was louder, distinguishable.

Sighing, Kaiba crouched down and lifted the bag to uncover a stray kitten struggling to remove its paw from the metal guard on the gutter. Setting down his briefcase, he worked carefully, his pale, long fingers deftly extracting the kitten's paw. The animal looked up at Kaiba and made a small, strangled noise that sounded more like a cough than a mew.

The kitten looked to be about six weeks, but was probably older; lack of food and shelter most likely had stunted its growth. Its long fur was black and matted and wet, sticking to it frame and causing it to look even frailer and more skeletal, but its eyes were clear, bright, and a deep, perceptive blue. Kaiba stared at its matted fur for a while before making a sound that sounded as close to a chuckle as Kaiba was ever likely to make in his lifetime.

"Your hair is as bad as Mokuba's," he said, presumably to the cat. The kitten mewed again weakly, and shivered.

"You are filthy, do you know that?" Kaiba said disdainfully to the little animal. "You are a gutter rat, a stray. And don't look at me like that," he implored, for when Kaiba had said the words "gutter rat", the kitten cocked its head to the side, as if to say, _Who, me?_

The red NO WALKING light finally switched to green. Kaiba stood up and straightened his raincoat, and began to cross the street. He felt the begging eyes of the cat burning into his back. "There is no way that I am taking you home. You are positively filthy."

He stood in the middle of the road. The kitten stared on.

"As if I would take you home. As if I, Seto Kaiba, one of the richest men in Japan, could possibly be expected to show an ounce of human decency and take a stray home."

And yet still he stood.

The cat made another strangled meow.

As if straining against the chains of his own typically heartless disposition, Kaiba slowly turned around and bent to pick up the kitten. It was positively tiny, almost weightless. Across the street was an outdoor patio to a restaurant, closed, of course, and Kaiba, cradling the kitten in an almost motherly way against his chest, strode over to one table. He sat the kitten on the tabletop and positioned his umbrella to protect it from the drizzle, leaving him exposed to the mist. Setting his briefcase down and snapping it open, he putted out what looked to be the remnants of his lunch.

"I suppose that the very _least_ I could do is give you what little I have to eat," Kaiba drawled in an attempt to sound apathetic. The kitten's lifted its nose up hopefully, nuzzling it against the mashed paper bag.

"Yes. A brown bag. Not exactly what one would expect a world-famous CEO to use to carry his lunch," Kaiba said lightly. "Mokuba packs them for me. My brother. Although I don't suppose you understand a word of what I am trying to say to you." The kitten, still pawing weakly at the lunch bag, ignored him. With a long sigh, as if the effort to open a paper bag and extract its contents were simply too much exertion on his part, Kaiba reached into the mashed up bag and pulled out the uneaten part of his sandwich and a small container of half and half.

"You're lucky, cat. He made me tuna fish." Kaiba pulled apart the bread and set it open faced in front of the kitten, who began to nibble on a corner, and then pulled off the covering to the half and half. "I don't know why he always puts half and half in my lunches for my coffee," Kaiba grumbled, "since he of all people should know I only drink black." He pushed the cream toward the cat and then crossed his arms and looked off into the hazy distance, waiting for the stray to finish its meal.

"Then again, I don't know why Mokuba insists on making coffee to put in my thermos. Odious stuff, really. thirteen-year-old boys don't make good coffee."

The kitten began lapping at the half and half, beginning to gain some newfound strength.

"I've been taking care of my brother for nearly ten years," Seto mused, his usual surly expression unchanged in spite of this reminiscence. "About a week from today will be the day that my biological father died."

From the corner of his saw Seto saw the kitten looking at him with its eyes. They were round and looked almost like cut sapphires. He returned the stare, face as blank as always.

"I don't really remember my biological father well. Which is quite strange, considering the fact that I was eight years old when he died, and apparently Mokuba remembers him quite well. He was...nearly four, I think." Seto unconsciously bounced the trading card locket containing his brother's photograph in the palm of his hand. "He's told me a few times about our biological father. But I suppose it is understandable," Seto's lip curled horribly. "My stepfather left a fairly permanent imprint on me in the matter of father figures."

"Mew?" The kitten, for the first time that night made a proper meowing sound. She was almost quizzical.

"My stepfather. Gozaburo Kaiba. He was a bad man. And that is all you are getting out of me, cat." With one cool stare, the kitten hastily resumed its supper, leaving Seto free to continue about his birth father.

"How unusual that my younger brother is the one to tell me about him. Mokuba says that is whom I inherit my looks from, that I am his spitting image. And I tell him that he resembles our birth mother." Seto's curled lip began to relax. "I remember her. Strange that I can remember her after all these years."

As if in remembrance, he closed his eyes.

"Like a photograph. I can see her imprinted in my mind to this day. She had blue eyes. My father had green eyes. So I suppose I inherited her eyes." Kaiba opened his, and turned to face the windows of the silent restaurant. He stared at his reflection. He looked almost hungry.

"She had kind eyes. She had beautiful blue eyes."

The muscles in his neck twitched, and a flash of anger--or was it longing?--flared through his glittering, glass impression.

"But I see nothing."

His hands, clenched into fists, shook very slightly.

"All I see is Gozaburo's likeness." He swallowed.

"I am my stepfather's son. I am a Kaiba. I am the most powerful man in this city, and arguably the most powerful, successful man in the country. I have the potential to have everything. But I have nothing."

His cold facade showed a slight hint at his true emotions. He glared, almost miserably, into the rain.

"I don't desire the world. I don't want to be all-powerful. Everybody thinks that I have to be the greatest person in the world. I would have kept the Kaiba company as a weapons company if I wanted to be that strong.

"I have only ever wanted to be the best at what I am good at."

The kitten, finishing up the last bit of tuna fish, glanced up at Kaiba in between laps. He didn't notice.

"Even when I was beaten by Yugi Moto, still I did not care. I could have easily disposed of him in some other way if that were the case. I could have been Japan's best duelist by default. I am not above such a measure. I knew that he would forfeit if I had threatened to kill myself at Duelist Kingdom. Foolish, softhearted boy," he sneered.

"But at the end of the day, even though I defeated him, the so-called King of Games...." Seto swallowed, his head tilted down, his wet hair covering his eyes, his voice lowered to a mumble, "...looked at me with disgust..."

"Meow?"

"Lost the game...but he has somebody that would stand beside him, at the end of the day..."

_"_Mew...."

Lower than a whisper, Kaiba only mouthed out words so softly, as is reciting words that he knew very well, and would most likely remember for the rest of his life. A sliver of moonlight shone through the storm clouds across Kaiba's face. It made him look almost sad.

_"what do you have at the end of the day, tell me, tell me--"_

He stared upwards at the grey sky through his sopping bangs.

"I have all that I need." He snapped his briefcase shut. "I have not forgotten what it is to be human." He picked up his umbrella.

"I may not have a heart. But I will beat him fairly. One day. Do you hear me?" He whispered, almost as if begging for her to hear. He heard the mewing of the stray kitten, not wanting the kind stranger to leave him. He picked it up gently, carefully shielding it from the rain with his coat.

"Hm. You're a female cat." Kaiba began his walk home again in the moonlight, accompanied on the journey this time around. "I think I can come up with a good name for you, then."

o o o o o

End


	2. Chapter 2

**A Brush and a Bottle of Baby Shampoo**

_**Posted:**__July 17, 2009_

_revised: 7/29/09_

_**ISF:**__Ta-dah! I decided to continue this story! I just felt it was meant to continue, if at the least a couple more chapters to tie up loose ends._

_Right now I'm watching the Golden Girls. Darn good show, it is. And no, I don't care that I'm a seventeen year-old girl who watches a show about retirees. Blanche is hilarious! But I digress. Enjoy the new chapter!_

_o o o o o_

Mokuba Kaiba was lounging lazily on the arm of a couch in his enormous room, surrounded by a slew of toys and games that any normal twelve-year-old boy would kill for, yet bored out of his skull. There was not really very much fun in having a huge pile of cool things to play with when there was nobody to play with. Mokuba sighed. He had few school friends, and most of the ones that he did have were, let's face it, only friends with him because he was a Kaiba and filthy rich. He swung his legs half-heartedly. Even though today was a rare occasion where his brother, Seto, was at home, he had shrugged off Mokuba's pleas for his company with a predictable, "I'm busy."

"Busy?" Mokuba said incredulously. "Busy with what?"

"With work, Mokuba. What else?"

"You just finished all of the work for the latest project's deadline," the boy accused. Seto sighed.

"There are still many other things to be done, Mokuba. Advertisements, sponsorships, promotion...all a lot of paperwork for me to fill out."

On a hunch, Mokuba decided to contact one of his brother's secretaries.

"Does Seto still have a lot of work to do for Kaiba Corp's latest product?" Mokuba asked Miyuki over the phone.

"He's got Akira and Humiyo in Marketing straightening out the last few details of everything, since he worked so late last night," Miyuki's surprisingly childish voice said matter-of-factly. Mokuba heard Miyuki's continuous typing in the background. Always able to multi-task, that Miyuki. So young, too...Mokuba's cheeks turned a faint pink. He rather liked this secretary of Seto's.

Miyuki continued. "Actually, he decided to take two days off and requested that no one from work would contact him unless it were an emergency. I guess that means you two will get all day today and tomorrow to catch up! Lucky you!"

Mokuba made no move to correct her of Seto's rather sneaky behavior. "Erm, right. Thanks a lot."

"You're very welcome, Mokuba, sir! Have a nice day, sweetie!"

Mokuba hung up the phone, clearing his throat and fiddling with the collar of his shirt. Miyuki's way of calling him "Mokuba, sir" and "sweetie" in the same sentence had that curious effect on him.

Initially, he had planned on spending the rest of the day investigating his brother's suspiciousness, but he, alas, had become overcome by ennui by mid-morning. So here on his sofa was he stretched out, tired, irritated, and in desperate need of something interesting to happen.

There were footsteps nearing his slightly open door. He could tell it was Seto. Mokuba frowned. This was the third time that Seto had passed his room in an hour. He would not have seen Seto until dinner time if that liar had been really working. It was so strange. Seto rarely ever lied to him, unless...Mokuba still remembered the days of Gozaburo. He tried to shake those thoughts out of his head. That time was behind him, and it was not like he could come from beyond the grave to exact revenge on them! Unless....

Mokuba had been watching horror movies in the dead of night for the past two weeks. He should probably nip that habit in the bud.

Raising his head slightly, Mokuba watched in half-amusement as Seto walked by his room carrying a bowl, some milk, and a can of sardines.

"Seto...what are you doing?"

Smoothly, Seto answered. "I was rather hungry. Thought that I would make myself a snack."

He was always quick to counter an interrogation attempt. Mokuba raised an eyebrow. "You wanted to drink milk and eat sardines?"

Seto nodded in a most grave manner.

"The taste of the milk and the texture of the sardines complement one another. Did you not pay attention in the Culinary Arts course with Professor Rousseau?"

Mokuba bit back a retort. He had skipped those lessons and bought Rousseau's silence with an iPod Nano. "Fair enough. But what's the bowl for, then?"

Seto blinked. "To put the milk in, of course."

"...." Mokuba was rendered speechless. Seto gave him a contemptuous glance.

"I suppose that you do not have the refined and worldly air of culture that I do, being that you, little Mokuba, are left with little short of bribing teachers with iPods to pass classes-" (Mokuba winced; he_ knew_) "-but due to my frequent travels, I am aware of the cultures and customs of many other societies. For example, in Scandinavia--"

"Alright, alright, I don't need a lecture on culinary customs from Scandinavia," snapped Mokuba. Shrugging, Seto turned and walked away.

Twenty-five minutes later, while Mokuba was skimming through a comic book uninterestedly, he heard Seto walk past. He came back around again, going back to his office. Mokuba peeked over the top of his comic book.

Seto was now holding a bucket of water, a washcloth, a brush, and bottle of baby shampoo.

"Big brother...are you going to go take a sponge bath in your office?" Seto snorted at Mokuba's question.

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous. I'm washing dishes, of course."

"Washing dishes," deadpanned Mokuba. Seto nodded.

"Certainly. The bowl that I used to eat my snack."

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "So...let me get this straight, you...are going to wash a single bowl in your office instead of taking it to the sink?"

Seto attempted a look of mild surprise. "Er...don't you?"

"Don't think that I'm stupid, Seto, I know something's going on!" said Mokuba angrily. "Why in the name of Obelisk do you have a hairbrush?"

"Because need to brush my hair. To put it bluntly and in your generation's language, _duh._"

"...You...I..but...." The boy was thunderstruck with rage. Calmly, Seto sidled around Mokuba, slighting steaming from the ears.

_Oh, he'll be back._ And so, Mokuba stayed in the hallway, tapping his foot patiently. The door to Seto's office snapped shut. Mokuba waited. About fifteen seconds later, there was a positively unearthly yowl and what sounded like an atomic bomb. The door reopened slowly, and out Seto limped determinedly, soaked head to toe in water.

"Forgot a towel," he informed his brother, who pushed Seto out of the way and burst into the office.

There, sitting in a puddle of water and looking deceptively innocent, was a stray kitten. Evidently it had done a pretty good job of avoiding the water; it was covered head to toe in filth.

"Oh...." Mokuba stood in wonder for a moment. Then, he burst out in laughter.

"I don't see why it's _that_funny," said Seto grumpily.

"So your time off, all this secretiveness, was for that kitten? AWESOME! We've never had a pet before, now let's see..." Mokuba crouched down to pet the kitten. "I want to name you--"

"I've already given her a name," Seto interjected.

"Really? What is it?"

"I...no."

Mokuba was dumbfounded. This was the weirdest day that he had in a while. His brother brought home a kitten, attempted to keep it secret, and now was self-conscious about his choice in feline names. "Whatever, Seto," he picked up the kitten and made to leave the room. "You're going to have to tell me this little critter's name sometime, and I promise," he winked at his bemused brother, "scout's honor, I promise I won't let loose a single chuckle." He led the kitten out of the room, perhaps to give it a proper bath, leaving his older sibling alone in his office.

Sighing, Seto crouched down to clean up the watery mess. Lacking a towel, he pulled off his trench coat (he was a multi-billionaire, one drenched coat was something to sneeze at) and laid it on the puddle. But then, as if remembering something important, he jerked it back up and fumbled in one of the pockets. There was a small leather case about a hand-span's length. He opened it gingerly to inspect the contents. He looked relieved. As relieved as Seto Kaiba's stony facial expressions went, that is.

He pulled a picture out and wiped a bead of water off a woman's face.

o o o o o

_**ISF**__: It's a bit strange to picture Kaiba carrying around a picture of a woman in his coat pocket. Gee, wonder who it is. (eye roll) Suspension of disbelief, people! Need to keep the story paced right!_

_Oh geez, Sophia on the Golden Girls made a hilarious zinger at Blanch....Good lord, I need to get out more often._

_Good, bad, what-in-the-name-of-Obelisk-were-you-thinking? Leave a review, and wait for the next exciting chapter!_

_FIN_


	3. Chapter 3

**The Kitten Messiah**

_posted: 7/21/09_

_revised_:_7/29/09_

_**ISF:**__Eh, don't really feel like discussing anything, so let's do reviewer comments!_

_**Crimson Zero:**____Thank you so much! I'm glad that I was able to capture the witty side of Kaiba. I didn't want him to be the typical boring, mean, one-sided character he often seems to be. I wanted to show him as a kid who argues with his little brother, just like every other sibling. I'm really pleased you thought I did well._

_**St. Danger:**____The bath was what got me too, I was snickering through the whole time writing it up. Thank god I wasn't the only one that thought it was funny. Whew! Thanks for the review!_

_**DeSiHoNeY7291:**____Kaiba definitely seems like a cat person to me. Joey's more of a dog person. I like cats, but I have to side with Joey on this one. ;) Thanks for the comment, glad you enjoyed the chapter so much!_

_**Ketchup27:**____Kaiba is definitely one of the harder characters in YGO to do well. It's pretty hard to make him both cold, brilliant and lovable at the same time. I appreciate your assurance that I managed to succeed at that. Thanks for reviewing!_

_**SetoEvee7:**____I plan on revealing the kitten's name next chapter, so stick around until then, alright? Or else! :p Just joking. Thanks for taking the time to review!_

_Oh man, I forgot how much I liked doing reviewer comments! I should do this more often!_

_-_

o o o o o

-

It was odd to hear the meowing of a cat in one's classroom while taking a test.

It was _incredibly_ odd to hear the meowing coming from one's briefcase.

This was what Seto Kaiba was thinking to himself as every student in the room looked up from their tests and at one another confusedly. Seto was, meanwhile, cursing his misfortune ever since taking home that monstrous little hell-cat exactly one week ago. His life had become an absolute nightmare thanks to that particular cat.

Well, it was not exactly a nightmare, per se, but it was still quite distressing nonetheless.

The kitten had gained a little weight since gaining residence at the Kaiba mansion, as she now had a regular schedule of healthy meals and was also indulged by Mokuba whenever the boy thought that Seto was not looking. But Seto was _always_looking. He was just astute, or neurotic like that. Mokuba had much more success in cleaning and grooming the kitten than Seto did, and the older sibling had to give the boy credit; he did a very good job. As it turned out, the kitten had grey fur the exact color of fresh ashes (save for on black front paw), and with her beautiful blue eyes, Seto, in a small fit of romanticism, likened the overall effect of the cat to be a living mélange of fire and ice. Mokuba said that she looked like she had been dumped into a dead fireplace.

"Come on, Seto, just tell me what you named her!" Mokuba said, the frustration evident in his voice, after the fifth time the kitten failed to respond to "Kitten". Must have taken to her new name quickly.

"Absolutely not," was Seto's stubborn reply, infuriating his brother even more.

"You can't possibly expect me to call her 'Cat' or 'Kitten' for the rest of her life, do you?"

Mokuba did have a point, but the fact remained that Seto was simply too embarrassed to reveal the cat's new alias to his ever-teasing brother. He had named the kitten something so incredibly personal, that, with the aid of hindsight, was so clearly a ridiculously out of character thing of Seto to do that it amazed him. Foresight: did he have any whatsoever?

Grudgingly, Seto had told his brother that by the end of the week, he would tell Mokuba the name of the kitten, but only if Mokuba swore not to tell anybody else. Mokuba promised.

"But what about the maids or the butler? What if they overhear me?"

Seto assured him that they did not count. They were unimportant people. Heck, they barely counted as people at all!

"You're kind of a jerk, Big Brother, did you know that?"

Indeed he was. But that was not were the trouble ended on the kitten matter. The first night that the kitten had spent in the Kaiba mansion was in Seto's own room, being that the animal's presence was still a secret. Somehow, in the middle of the night (or shall we say, early morning), Seto had jolted from out of his slumber to find that he was suffocating, only to realize that somehow the kitten had crawled over his face. Obviously, this was when the kitten was still filthy, disgusting Seto to the point where he attempted to bathe her in the morning. But of course, the ending to that travesty is known.

That very day Seto had bought her a beautiful bed, spacious and luxurious enough for a full-grown cat, let alone a small, undernourished kitten, but the second night, Seto was again awoken being smothered by the kitten's furry little belly covering his face and her claws digging into his scalp and neck.

The third night, Seto had moved her bed into Mokuba's room, and made sure to lock his own bedroom door before falling asleep, but, somehow, at four a.m., he woke up trying to gasp for air and spit out fur at the same time. He glared at the kitten after turning on his lamp. She looked at him with an almost dog-like enthusiasm. Seto looked at his door. It was still closed and locked. There was only a half-inch space between the carpet and the bottom of the door.

"Just what _are_ you?" he snarled at the cat, half insane from rage and lack of sleep. Her response was to turn her head to the side and flick her little, fluffy tail.

And still that was not it. Every morning when leaving for school or work, Seto walked out of his house and into his limo which drove halfway out of the driveway only for Seto to order the driver to turn around so the teenager could take the kitten back inside, which had somehow stowed itself away in his briefcase. He almost wanted to ask his team of lawyers if it were possible to put a restraining order on a feline. The animal was _obsessed_with him. And it _frightened_ him.

Mokuba denied Seto's enraged accusations of the boy trying to pull a joke on him.

"I swear, I haven't been doing any of it!" Mokuba shrieked in an almost girlish way after the sixth Indian burn. Seto decided to take his brother's word. Also, he had run out of skin on the boy's arms and legs to twist.

Seto had forgotten to check his briefcase before leaving for school this morning.

The accursed kitten made another pleading mew. It was probably hungry by now. The students were clearly even more confused. Luckily, the teacher was nearly deaf and absorbed in grading papers. Seto counted to five slowly before inconspicuously unlatching his briefcase, which was on the floor next to his leg. This was a big mistake, as the hellion decided to dash out of the briefcase and crawl up Seto's pants.

Panicking in no way that he had ever panicked before, at least in recent memory, Seto began frantically shaking and beating at his leg. Somehow, the kitten took that as an invitation to dig its claws into his calf. He let out a strangled yelp.

This time, the students _and_the teacher heard. A few students in the back of the classroom, Jounouchi included, began to giggle, having never heard such an undignified noise uttered from the lips of the great Seto Kaiba before.

"Is there something wrong, Mister Kaiba?" the teacher asked him curiously. Seto put on his usual mask of indifference and surliness, which was no doubt pretty difficult on his part as the kitten was making its way up towards his knee.

"No, Teacher, nothing is wrong. Nothing at—_**ALL!**__"_ Seto's voice cracked, about two octaves higher, and he began to shake his leg even more ferociously. Many students in the classroom made no effort to conceal their laughter at the normally stoic CEO's strange behavior. Jounouchi looked like he had won a trip to Tokyo Disneyland.

"Sure you don't need to go get a drink of water, or go to the infirmary?"

"No, I—" The infirmary! Seto stood up. "Actually, I feel that going to the infirmary would be the best course of action at this time, I don't really feel like myself." He said quickly and surprisingly eloquently considering the circumstances. He then made his way up to the teacher's desk doing the absolute strangest half-limp, half-skip that any student had ever seen Kaiba do before. Jounouchi and Honda were silently pounding on their desks, tears streaming freely and gloriously from their eyes. Seto grit his teeth from the pain and tickling sensation. "May I please have a pass?"

The teacher looked him over and handed him a pass addressed to the Health Room. "Very well. Mazaki, escort him to the infirmary!" Anzu got up from her seat. She was one of the few who were not laughing, seeming to be genuinely concerned over the CEO's strange behavior. "Mazaki, best be sure he doesn't have a seizure in the hallway."

Seto again cursed his rotten luck, vowing to never again show kindness to a stray animal ever in his lifetime. Anzu walked ahead of him out of the classroom, holding the door open for him. The classroom's last few seconds with Seto Kaiba were of him straining to walk properly, then making a high-pitched screech and jump-lurching through the door, which snapped shut behind him. The students burst into laughter, Jounouchi and Honda laughing the loudest of them all.

"Kaiba, what...?" Anzu's question forever remained unanswered, as she observed, to her shock, Kaiba running away a decent distance from her, turning away, _reaching down into his pants_ and pulling out what looked to be a bundle of gray fur.

She had nearly fainted before realizing that it was a kitten he had pulled out from his pants.

A kitten.

It was the messiah of all magic tricks, really.

-

o o o o o

-

_**ISF**__: I won't lie, I was chuckling through this whole chapter while I was typing it up. This is definitely the funny chapter I have ever written for a fan fiction, if I do say so myself._

_I'm just praying to God that other people think so as well! But the only way for me to find out is for you peeps to review! Come on, I gotta know what you guys think about it! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, until next time!_

_FIN_


	4. Chapter 4

**Only Human Again**

_posted: 7/29/09_

_**ISF: **__Good lord, the creative juices were positively gushing forth this chapter. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. But before I talk about that, reviewer comments?_

_..Erm, a bit too many people reviewed for me to spend time replying to every single one. Evidently, this fan fiction is my most popular fic that I've had for a while now. You people should look at my other fics, you know! LOL!_

_But thank you so much, __**Journey Maker, CrimsonZero**__(Is that a reference to Crimson Hero, the shoujo manga?)__**, ForeverBlue90, SetoEevee7, Patriot16, KikutaMaster, blueeyes, lk, SETO-KAIBA-LIFE, Ketchup27, IcyPanther, Sandra Malfoy, Egyptionkitty, Zenbon Zakura, lscooper, RitualKitten, XxGoddess AthenaxX,**__and __**The Keeper of Lone Wolfs.**_

_To __**Egyptionkitty,**__thanks for motivating me to go correct those many typos in the first three chapters. I think I got the worst offenders._

_also, as an Author's Note about the story, I'm referencing the Death-T Tournament in this chapter and the Virtual World Arc. I know they're from the manga and anime, respectively, but hey, willful suspension of disbelief is a beautiful thing, kiddos. Cheers!_

-

o o o o o

-

"Kaiba...."

The boy in question chose not to respond to Anzu, focusing instead on the bundle of fluff that was now placed on a stone wall outside of the school, ravenously eating a can of cat food that Seto had in his briefcase. It was astounding to Anzu that, despite the fact that he had a cat in his pants, he remembered his briefcase, and that there was a can of cat food in it. But then again, Kaiba's briefcase might as well be an extension of one of his own limbs, and the man was always prepared. Kaiba said nothing negative about Anzu following him outside to the school's courtyard. The two were sitting on opposite sides of the kitten in an awkward silence. Anzu thought that he was much too concerned with feeding the cat. She tried to catch his attention.

"There...was a cat in your pants," she said uselessly. Kaiba made a contemptuous, "Kaiba-ish" sound.

"Thank you for stating the obvious, Mazaki. I had absolutely no idea that there was a kitten that was clawing my leg into shreds and which I am now feeding." Anzu was about to make a fierce retort, but then felt something soft rubbing against her arm. The grey little furball was rubbing itself enthusiastically against Anzu, mewing happily. It climbed into Anzu 's lap and stared straight into the girl's eyes. They both had the same friendly, blue, glittering eyes. Smiling, Anzu petted the kitten, who mewed in the same way that a puppy would bark.

"You're a cute one," Anzu said to the kitten.

"Cute? _Cute?_" Kaiba snapped incredulously. "This fiend is the bane of my existence!

"I have not had a decent night's sleep in a week! Every hour I am woken up by this, this _monster_ smothering me in my sleep, and whom is somehow, inexplicably able to sneak out of Mokuba's room, down the hall, and into my _locked_room! Every day I have to clear it out of my briefcase! I am not even able to eat a simple bowl of soup without the hellcat leaping into it!" Shocked and amused at the same time, Anzu watched Kaiba go on a furious tirade, while the kitten snuggled itself happily into the girl's lap.

"You bought Mokuba a pet? I didn't know that you were a cat person," said Anzu, after Kaiba had calmed down sufficiently.

"I'm not," he said irritably, then turned his attention towards the kitten. "I'm never bringing home a stray again, you hear me?" Kaiba gave it an ice-cold glare, which had no effect on her other than causing her to get up out of Anzu's lap and run, purring, into Kaiba's. Kaiba closed his eyes, sighing, only to open them when he heard Anzu's soft chuckle. "What are you laughing at? And why have you not gone back to class already?"

"Oh, you think that I've never skipped class before?" She said, smiling. "It's just that I never would have pegged you as somebody that would bring a stray kitten home. It's a nice change from the Kaiba I know."

Kaiba gave her a deep frown.

"While I understand that you and your gang of friends only know me as Yugi's life-long adversary and as a ruthless businessman, I am not an inhuman person. Contrary...." his lip curled, "to what you have had to say about it in the past." Anzu felt a hot wave of embarrassment followed by anger.

"You could have fooled me, what with all of the trouble you've given him over the years," she said angrily. Kaiba watched her, stroking the kitten in his lap. He felt a strange happiness, pushing her buttons like this. "There was Battle City—"

"I made no move to force Yugi into competing, as you should know," Kaiba said smoothly. "He is his own free man, and able to attend whatever event he pleases, though _you_ may not want him to."

"Fine, then," said Anzu. "But then there was Death-T when you ripped up Yugi's grandfather's Blue Eyes up!"

There was a pause in the conversation.

Kaiba gave Anzu a very odd look, then said slowly, "I was a different person back then." He almost looked sad, and Anzu almost was sorry to have mentioned it.

The two sat in poignant silence. The kitten, bored now that Kaiba had stopped petting her, went to licking at the last crumbs in her can of food. Anzu thought about the Death-T tournament that Kaiba had thrown in order to terrorize Yugi and his friends, which included her, and when he had deliberately ripped Sugoroku's Blue Eyes, held so dearly in the old man's heart, right down its middle. She personally thought that it was not the strain of battling with a boy that was a fourth of his age, but the emotional stress of watching said boy destroy a precious treasure given to him by a friend that sent Sugoroku Muto to the hospital. Personally, Anzu felt that if somebody had done such a thing to her, she would have to go straight to the emergency room. It was weird sitting with the man, stiff-backed and grim, that was once a vicious and malevolent person and whom had desperately tried to be Yugi's undoing. But Anzu somehow felt in the deepest part of her heart that she would be perfectly safe sitting with Kaiba, and that the part of his soul that was monstrous was in his past.

"I...changed after becoming adopted."

Anzu looked at Kaiba, eyes wide with surprise. She knew that Kaiba was adopted, having been told by Mokuba and experiencing that nightmare with Noah Kaiba before the Battle City Finals, but had never expected it to hear it from the horse's mouth.

"When I was adopted, I had thought that I was saving Mokuba and myself from the hell of an orphanage that we lived at. Every day, my brother would be bullied by the older orphans there, and I would be beaten up trying to protect him. I was always punished by the adults." Here, Kaiba gave a thin-lipped, wry smile. "I learned early on that in this world, it is much more usual for the victim to be punished and the guilty to walk free.

"I was quite wrong, of course," he said, almost conversational if it were not for the low murmur of his voice that told Anzu he had never spoken this much about his past to another person. "I had caused us to enter an even worse hell than before. Gozaburo Kaiba was a cruel man, even by my standards today. Every day, from dawn to dusk, I was forced to study philosophy, mathematics, literature, chemistry, biology, game theory, economics, and a variety of other subjects. If I ever fell asleep or had failed to complete my work, my professors informed Gozaburo of my heedlessness and he took it upon himself to personally beat me."

Anzu swallowed, feeling a lump grow in her throat. Kaiba continued, absentmindedly scratching behind his kitten's ears.

"I have scars left from the beatings I received from him, did you know that? Probably not, I suppose. His favorite item to beat me with was a chain. But he used anything he could find, belts with large buckles, walking sticks, oh...anything, really. He burned me with the end of his cigar a few times. That hurt." Kaiba said it as calmly as if he had said something average and mundane. "One's skin can grow numb after the first few lashings from a belt or stick, but it was agony to be burned."

She felt tears stinging her eyes. It was absolutely horrible hearing him speak about such terrible things with his strange, ever-apathetic growl of a voice. And still, Kaiba went on.

"Two and a half weeks after Gozaburo adopted us, I was packing a suitcase for Mokuba and myself. I was planning to run away and take the two of us to social services and to report Gozaburo's abuse. He caught me just as I was walking out of my bedroom with the suitcase in my hand.

"And do you know what he said to me?" Kaiba seemed to no longer be talking to Anzu, but himself, a strange, empty smirk on his face. "He said, 'if you take one more step, I will get your brother and give you the pleasure of watching me strangle him to death in front of you. I will smash his face into the ground until his face is nothing but a bloody mess on the floor. I am smart, you are dumb. I am God, and you are nothing but a worthless ant. I could kill Mokuba and get away with it, because I have power that you will never dream of having, Seto. Never forget that.' He never touched a hand on Mokuba. Ever.

And I suppose that is what began to change me. I became a horrible person. Despicable. I played my brother like a pawn, knowing of his unwavering loyalty to me, so that I would have the means to take Kaiba Corp as legally mine and to utterly destroy Gozaburo. I changed Kaiba Corp into a gaming technologies company. I finally was able to live the childhood that I never had. But that came at a cost. I sold out my soul, my brother, for money. It was only after Yugi defeated me with the Exodia cards and I experienced a mental breakdown that I realized that I had become the monster that I despised and had tried so hard to protect Mokuba from. But Gozaburo was better than me because he had never so much as touched Mokuba, while I would have let him die so I could become an omnipotent master of gaming and business. That is my one shame, the stain upon my eternal soul that I will never live down, nor ever wash away from my soul. Mokuba may forgive me, but I will forever live over and over and over again my folly, that I would sell my flesh and blood to the devil so that I could best another at a simple game of cards."

Kaiba finally stopped. He turned and stared, emotionlessly, at Anzu, who was looking at him with tears streaming down her face and a hand clamped over her mouth. She struggled to say something, almost choking on her tears.

"I...I am s-so s-sorry...."

He gave her a look that one might describe as quizzical, if it did not also have the usual surliness that had finally reappeared in his features.

"Why are you apologizing to me? You have done nothing harmful to me or my brother."

Anzu gulped and shook her head.

"I mean...I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry that you had to suffer for so long to protect your brother."

"It was nothing to me," he said fiercely. "It was my duty. It was an honor to keep Mokuba safe. I would have died for him if it meant giving him the life that he deserved and had never received."

"You were a good brother to him—"

"I was a terrible brother," he cut her off. "I used him. Treated him like dirt."

"You spent your whole life protecting him. You did your best. And you learned. You have to move on. You can't keep living a nightmare because of the one time that you messed up, and you don't have to suffer alone anymore. You have Mokuba, and Yugi knows that you are really good at heart. And even though he doesn't believe it, Jounouchi admires you deep down, that's why he is always challenging you to a fight or duel, because he wants to have the strength that you do, to keep fighting on for the people that he loves against all odds. But please, please don't bear this weight alone. You'll die if you don't let people into your heart. Seto, you are not a machine. You are human."

A long pause.

"I know." His voice had a quiet, sad sort of quality to it, that Anzu had never heard before. "I am not a machine. I have something at the end of the day."

Reaching into his breast pocket, he pulled out a handkerchief and placed it in Anzu's hand. It was silk and a gleaming white, never once used.

"My birth mother once told me that to make a lady cry was a detestable thing to do. Almost unforgivable." He closed Anzu's hand around the silken cloth, and she was surprised at the surprising warmth of his palms. "The only way to atone for it was to give her a handkerchief and beg for her forgiveness."

"No, no, you don't have to do that," Anzu said, wiping at her eyes and resisting the urge to blow her nose. "It's okay, really, Kai—"

"You may call me Seto," he said smoothly. "Since you have already said it." And so she had, and not even realized. "I am afraid that I must be going. I have work that needs to be done. Tell the teacher that I was called for an important matter and had to leave school." He picked up the kitten in an almost tender way and with his other hand grabbed his briefcase. It was only after he was halfway down the hall that Anzu ran after him.

"Seto, wait!"

He stopped, back still facing her.

"I have to know something," she said breathlessly, even though her short run did not warrant it. "Did you only save me from Marik at Battle City during Yugi and Joey's duel, just to repay me? Would you have saved me even if you didn't owe me?"

He made no movement to turn around.

"Yes. _Yes_. A thousand times, yes."

She felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, and tears threatened to spill down her cheeks.

"You...you never told me your kitten's name," she said, struggling to control the quaver in her voice.

From where she was standing, it looked as if his head was turned toward the ground.

"...Apricot." His voice was rough. "Her name is Apricot."

Anzu began to cry.

She felt the worst rage she had ever experienced overflowing within her.

"Why, _why did you save me?_" she yelled at him, a sob in her voice.

"Because I love you."

And without another word, or a single look back, he left the school, leaving Anzu alone and sobbing into her hands.

Anzu, whose very name meant "apricot".

-

o o o o o

-

_**ISF: **__Yeah. Apricot. I was seriously considering either Anzu or Kisara, but neither of them quite fit, the latter especially. Apricot's a cute name, right? Makes the kitten sound juicy and sweet...well...that came out wrong._

_I was a little wary about having Kaiba reveal his feelings, but after writing it, I dunno, it felt so right. And it didn't feel out of character at all. What do I know, though? Ehehe. Thanks for reading, and as you know, you need to write reviews for me to know that you read and enjoyed or hated the story! Until next time!_

_FIN_


	5. Chapter 5

**A Flower Blooming**

_posted: 8/1/09_

_**ISF: **__Again, not much I want to say. And there were some good reviews for this chapter, so it's comment time!_

_**Sandra Malfoy: **__You had the honor of being the first to review chapter four, so I give you extra thanks! It pleases me greatly that you found it touching, and I'm going to work hard to make sure I can pull that off again. Thanks for the review!_

_**CrimsonZero:**__Ah. I see. It's a shame, because Crimson Hero was one of the few manga that I actually liked reading in Shoujo Beat before I cancelled my subscription. It's really quite an interesting story about a tomboy in Japan struggling for self-satisfaction and defying her mother's demands for her to take over the family business, but I digress. I was, admittedly, a little worried about his declaration, but then again he is a very blunt man and goes after what he wants. I really appreciate the in-depth praise you have given me, and I hope this next chapter is to your liking._

_**SETO-KAIBA-LIFE: **__Judging from your name, I can see why you enjoy this fan fiction. XD Thanks for the appreciation, and here is your chapter._

_**izlandangel: **__Yeah, Anzu and Seto. I'm quite the azure shipper myself, so I'm glad that you find the story to be enjoyable. I hope you find this chapter up to par. Thanks for reviewing!_

_**St. Danger: **__Not an azure shipper, you say? I'll convert you somehow. Just kidding! But I'm glad you enjoy the story despite not shipping them, nevertheless, and I'm glad you find Apricot's name fitting, since I was a little worried about that. Thanks a lot!_

_**zenbon zakura: **__Yeah. It was hard for him to make that confession, but I think it was right to have him said it out loud. Character development and all. Hope I shocked you sufficiently into staying and reading this. LOL! Thanks for the review!_

_**.Sushi: **__I'm completely flattered that I've managed to entertain somebody, even though they don't support the couple. I appreciate you reading the story despite your personal preferences and am happy that you complimented so sweetly. Thanks, and I mean it. ^_^_

_**XxGoddess AthenaxX**__: You asked for it, now enjoy this chapter! Hopefully it's as good as the last one. Thanks a ton for reviewing, and I hope you stick around for the conclusion._

-

o o o o o

-

Seto knew what love was.

He may have been called cruel, cold, and heartless a thousand times in his lifetime, but he understood the very basic, textbook concept of love, and had felt that warm, beautiful feeling a few times in his life before.

The first time was with his birth mother, and, he assumed, his birth father, though he could barely remember the latter. He could distinctly remember going strawberry picking with his parents. His mother's belly was swollen because she was due in three months, and then Seto would have the little brother that she had promised him. The sun was bright, inviting, and warmed his shoulders as he picked plump berries from the strawberry bushes, all perfectly aligned with one another. The sunlight glittered magnificently in his mother's cerulean eyes, making them look almost like precious gems. Her black hair was curly, yet he had never seen it frizzy or out of place before; every strand always fell, glossy and smooth, into place. Seto remembered giving her the largest, most red strawberry he had found and she had taken it from his hands with her delicate, white fingers and given him a smile that sent a tingling feeling that made him feel like giving her a kiss on the cheek, and made his heart feel the warmth that a hot day could never emulate. Motherly love had its own unique warmth.

The second time was with his brother, Mokuba. He was the only thing that Seto had, and Seto was the only thing that Mokuba had. One day after getting in trouble defending Mokuba from bullies, a teacher put the two in isolation together. They were in a room that was nearly empty save for a table, some chairs, a few broken toys, and a chess set, barely used. Seto supposed that was only because the children at the orphanage were unlikely to ever want to play chess. Mokuba had dirt on his face, a nose rubbed raw, and was still sniffling because of the scrapes he had gotten on his knees from being pushed by the orphanage's bullies. Seto had a black eye that was beginning to purple. He did not want Mokuba to start crying again because of his black eye, so he grabbed the chess set, set up all the pieces, and began teaching Mokuba how to play. It was difficult, of course, since Mokuba was only five and could not completely understand the concepts behind chess, but the boy tried his best, and they even had fun together. Mokuba did not mind in the least losing to Seto, and as he willingly gave his older brother his king piece, grinning ear to ear and his scrapes forgotten, Seto felt love for the second time, except this time it was a wildly happy sort of feeling. Seto felt like taking Mokuba outside, putting him on his back, and flying away from the orphanage to a new world where they could run and jump and play and live forever. Fraternal love had a feeling that was slightly different, but it made his heart feel nice inside, just the same.

And Seto knew what romantic love was, though he had never before experienced it. He had read many works of literature about it. Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Tristan and Isolde.... Countless masterpieces written about such love, and Seto read them studiously yet dubiously, understanding the mechanics and technique used for building sentences and picking the right word with the best connotation, and still he did not know why the books were about such love. Why had a decade-long war been fought all in the name of Helen of Troy? What was this wondrous emotional phenomenon found in procreating with a member of the opposite gender for the means of reproduction? There were nearly 7 billion people on the planet currently. Surely any woman would be just as good as the next one? To put it simply, he knew what it was, but did not know _what _it was.

This, of course, was before Seto took control of Kaiba Corp, and had countless women throwing themselves at him, disgusting the man to no end. They were pathetic, willing to grovel and demean their self respect for a relationship with somebody who was rich, and that was when Seto had lost interest in romantic love, dismissing the literary greats' writing on such love as mere momentary lapses in sanity.

But then it had all changed when he had met Anzu Mazaki.

He had first noticed her before dueling Yugi Muto for the first time, after defeating his grandfather and tearing up his Blue Eyes card. From the corner of his eye, he watched her as she gathered her friends around her and drew a sign on all their hands. What a silly girl, he had thought, half amused by her belief that their friendship would be strong enough to defeat the top duelist in the country. He had been wrong, of course, because Yugi did defeat him. But Seto firmly believed that, regardless, Yugi would have won, having been equipped with the unstoppable Exodia cards.

The next time he had taken notice of her was in the middle of dueling Yugi for the second time, right before the Duelist Kingdom Finals. Standing on the edge of the castle tops, watching Yugi command his monster to attack him and win the duel, Seto nearly thought that Yugi would indeed have it in him to win. And then Seto would have killed himself, having lost all hope at regaining his brother's soul. But then Anzu screamed at Yugi to stop, that it wasn't worth having Seto Kaiba's blood on his hands and that his grandfather would not have wanted to be saved at that expense. Yugi called off the attack, and Kaiba had won. Seto scolded Yugi. He told Yugi that it was the better man that had won, and if he had the courage to let him die, then he would have deserved to save his grandfather.

But as he walked away, Anzu stood in his way. She looked at him with undisguised disgust. Seto was used to such looks, but her face lacked the fear or awe that every other person had. He felt anger rearing itself in him. How dare she disrespect him?

"You have lived with your machines for so long, you have forgotten what it is to be human," she declared, meeting him eye for eye. "Yugi has friends. Yugi has us! But what do you have at the end of the day, Seto Kaiba? Tell me."

It was true. All he had was his duties for his brother and his business. He had nothing that Yugi wanted. Anzu thought that all of his money, all of his power, was worth less than nothing, and part of him agreed while the other part wanted to smack her for her impudence.

But looking at Anzu, Seto felt a small quiver of something other than his contempt of her. It was a strange, fluttering sort of feeling in his abdomen. To his horror, he knew it was what all of the books he had read referred to as attraction.

"Tell me!"

He felt his rage overcome him, and he snapped, "I have what I need!" and sidestepped her, walking into the castle, the tails of his trench coat flying behind him.

After that incident, he had committed himself to defeating Yugi, with a wild, irrational certainty that if he defeated him, she would be impressed by him. The days when Seto had scorned men who struggled to move the earth for a woman were now forgotten. He spent much of his free time at work, constructing a better dueling device, making plans to debut the product at a tournament. He barely slept. Still forced to attend school and learn about things that he already knew, despite having to run a company, take care of his brother, and plan his tournament, Seto bribed his teachers to mark him present when he was not at school, and when he had to come for tests, flew threw them effortlessly, opened a book and amused himself by sneaking glances of Anzu between pages. Machiavelli and Chaucer were left only half-studied as Seto watched Anzu scratch her arm and tap her pencil on her nose before filling in another bubble on her test. She stifled a yawn and made a quick glance to her right, making eye contact with Yugi as he did the same. She smiled at Yugi, filling Seto's heart with hot-blooded anger and driving him more furiously into his work.

His tournament, of course, had not gone exactly as planned. He had once again lost to Yugi Muto. It was all for nothing.

But then, he remembered when Yugi was forced into dueling Jounouchi. Seto and Yugi had flown to the harbor, and to both of their shock, saw Anzu, in a trance, willfully allow herself to be tied up underneath a large crate ready to crush her should a Rare Hunter decide to press a switch. Seto bided his time, waiting for the right moment to free her. He saw the Rare Hunter move to press the switch, and Seto moved unconsciously, slicing open the man's hand with a flick of his wrist, throwing Duel Monster cards at the man which were in fact made of metal and had edges sharpened to a point. It was too late, though, and Seto watched as the crate was released, and Anzu looked up, mouth half-open in surprise, tears forming in the corner of her beautiful cerulean eyes—

Seto had managed to free her, grabbing her out of the way. The crate dropped onto the chair with a horrible heavy thump, and for a moment, a brief moment, Seto held her close to him, feeling her heart beating a thousand times a minutes. For that one sweet moment that seemed like forever and yet not long enough, Seto had Anzu, she was his, and he knew in his heart that all of those countless hours working overtime and the millions of dollars spent had been worth every second and every penny. He felt what was almost like a flower blooming in his chest, filling him up with a euphoric feeling more powerful than any opiate, and he needed every ounce of restraint he had not to smash his lips against hers and kiss her forever, public image be damned.

And that was the third time that he had felt love.

-

o o o o o

-

_**ISF: **__Not much dialogue or plot in this chapter, but I felt it was necessary to go back and explore what exactly made Seto fall in love with Anzu, and his feelings on love itself. I didn't want him to be as he normally is in these fan fictions, fighting tooth and nail against feeling love. A man needs some loving, after all. XD But, despite his curiosity about love, he, not really experiencing enough love as he really needed, doesn't completely understand it in the way that most other people do. And I wanted to capture his exact reaction and feelings in regards to his attraction to Anzu, so...yeah._

_I'm a bit worried about this chapter, though. It seems to me a bit bland. I didn't want flowery, purple prose in describing his feelings. After all, Seto's not one for that, and likes to evaluate things in a very analytical way, never relying on superfluous descriptions. But it may have affected the entertainment value. Oh well. I'll leave it to you to decide._

_FIN_


	6. Chapter 6

**Breaking the Ice**

_posted: 8/06/09_

_**ISF:**__ It's comment time!_

_Comments_

_**Sandra Malfoy**__: Whew, that's a relief. I was a little uncertain about how I did on those memories, so I'm thrilled that you enjoyed them. Thanks so much for reviewing!_

_**St. Danger**__: Strangely enough, I feel like Kaiba can really be compatible with so many people in Yu-Gi-Oh! Jounouchi, Anzu, Shizuka, maybe Yami Yugi, and heck, even Mai! I've actually got some plans in the back of my head for a Jounouchi x Mai x Seto love triangle when I've completed some of the fics I already have going. Don't want to be too ambitious with twenty fics going! XD But anyways, thanks for the review!_

_**ForeverBlue90: **__Cute? Great! I always knew that Kaiba was a softie real deep down! Here is your update!_

_**PrincessChitra: **__Your wish is my command! (cue I Dream of Jeanie music) Thanks alot!_

_**CrimsonZero: **__It seemed natural for me to mention Kaiba's mom and brother, since those are the only people that I could conceivably believe that he loved. Well, his dad too, but since he doesn't really remember him well, you get the point. XD It's got to be bad loving so few people in his life. No wonder the dude's got a cruel streak longer than the Nile! And lucky for you, this chapter has Anzu evaluating her feelings for Kaiba. Thanks for reviewing, and keep on reading!_

_**killthesnakesx: **__I'm truly flattered that you love it and think I did a good job. ^_^ I really appreciate it._

_**XxGoddess AthenaxX: **__Good lord, woman, you're making me blush! Surely I'm not that great! (laugh) But nevertheless, I thank you heartily for your kind words and am happy that you connect so much with the story. It touches me._

_**TheButterflyFairy122: **__Thanks for the motivation and encouragement, dear! Here is your new chapter!_

_**Egyptionkitty: **__Yes! Another convert to the Church of Azure Shippers! But I digress. You bring up a good point about needing to refresh a lot of readers' memories about canon events. I forget that the show's been off the air for like, four years now. So I'll put in some more flashbacks this chapter to show how much Anzu and Seto have been through. Or should I say, what Seto's been through with Anzu watching on the sidelines with the rest of the gang. LOL!_

_**itsabell-chan: **__You can only imagine how I felt typing it up. XD I was trying so hard not to lose all my composure. It pleases me greatly to make you laugh, so thanks a lot for telling me how funny you thought that chapter was._

_And now, your feature presentation!_

-

o o o o o

-

Honda knew that there was something clearly bothering Anzu Mazaki.

She had come back to class thirty minutes after leaving with Kaiba and was reprimanded by the teacher. She said nothing, bowing respectfully in apology and going back to her seat. Without a word to any of her friends, she put her nose in her textbook, working in what looked like silent diligence at first glance but Honda knew was idle time-wasting because her eyes had not yet moved across the page. They were slightly puffy and pink.

She said very little for the rest of the period, pretending to be immersed in her work. When the lunch bell rang, Anzu got a pass from the teacher.

"Aren't you going to eat lunch with us, Anzu?" Jounouchi said between bites of his meal. She shook her head and gave what Honda thought was a weak attempt at a smile.

"I need to go to the library to study for a while. I'll see you after lunch," she said. Jounouchi shrugged indifferently and returned to amusing Yugi with his imitation of Kaiba's earlier freak out, albeit with an intentionally more feminine scream. Yugi was red in the face trying not to burst out in laughter but, alas, it was a losing battle. Honda watched Anzu leave the classroom and quietly shut the door behind her. After a few seconds, he got up to the teacher's desk.

"I forgot, Teacher, I have to go study, too. May I have a pass?" The teacher looked irritated but said nothing and signed a slip of paper. Honda left the room. He saw Anzu turn a corner in the hallway, walking in the opposite direction from the library. He frowned a little, and followed her stealthily.

Anzu destination was the auxiliary gymnasium. It was smaller than the main gym and thus was almost always empty during lunch hour. The room was rather dimly lit, but it was still possible to see her outline fairly well. She walked up the bleachers and sat down at the very back. Honda was watching her behind the door, his neck craning around to get a good look at her while still remaining inconspicuous.

Anzu sat, alone, for a long time, staring down at her feet. Honda waited. The minutes slowly ticked by. He was beginning to get a neck cramp watching her, but a part of him kept him rooted to the spot, telling him that he needed to stay.

And so, he was there to see Anzu's composure give out. She began to cry quietly in her hands, her shoulders shaking. It took all of his courage for Honda to walk up to her.

"...Anzu...?" Honda said uncertainly. She looked up, surprised.

"Honda....what are you doing here?" Anzu tried to sound normal, discreetly trying to wipe away her tears. Honda did not give a vocal answer, instead sitting down in the seat beside her. They sat for a while in silence. Anzu began to cry again. She turned her face away from her friend.

"Oh, Anzu, don't do that," he said, clearly exasperated. "There's no shame in crying. Come on, you've seen _me _cry before."

"That was different," muttered Anzu throatily, pulling out a handkerchief. "Somebody threw a 75-miles-per-hour fastball at your crotch."

"Yeah, and my manhood _still_ hasn't regained its original shape," Honda laughed. Anzu giggled in spite of herself. A short pause followed.

"Honda..." began Anzu, still not looking directly at him. "What do you do when somebody tells you that they love you?"

"Well...if it were me, I'd tell them how I felt."

"But I don't know _how _I feel!" she despaired, finally looking at Honda, who leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms.

"I think you do know your feelings," he said to her shrewdly. "You just don't want to admit it."

The two were silent for a few minutes. Honda waited for her to reply. She wrung her handkerchief into a tangled mess.

"I'm just...so confused," she said. "I remember when I first fell in love with somebody, I didn't even know who they were for a while, but...I looked up to him. He was strong, good, and virtuous. I always believed in him, and I didn't even know what he looked like! And then after we learned about the Pharaoh, I was so mixed up. I didn't know which side of Yugi I liked." Honda could understand. It wasn't every day you were attracted to a person who shared a body with a sixteen-year-old boy. "I didn't know if they were the same or split personalities or what. But my faith in him was infallible. I could never be angry at him. I could always count on him. Not the way it is now, I mean, I can barely stand to be alone five minutes with Se—I mean...." she trailed off uselessly.

Honda sighed. "It's okay, I already know this is about you and Kaiba." Her eyes nearly doubled in size.

"But...what...how did you..!?" Chuckling a little, the boy pointed at the handkerchief in her hands. She lifted it to eye level, and saw, to her dismay, the initials "SK" embroidered in a corner.

"Besides, it's not like it wasn't obvious," Honda continued. "You and lover boy canoodling for half an hour after leaving class. Of course, Jounouchi and Yugi are completely clueless about it, but I've suspected it for a while now. I knew there was something going on, at least from Kaiba's side."

"Really? How did you know?"

"You never noticed how much he stared at you in class? Well, when he was actually _in _class, that is." Honda put his hands behind his head and leaned back leisurely. "I caught him more than a couple of times looking at you from behind those big books of his. It's just that he didn't catch _me_." Smirking, he winked at his astounded female friend. "Being in the background most of the time has its benefits, you know."

"Oh...I see...." She broke her gaze from him and stared off thoughtfully into space. Honda saw her eyes growing misty again.

"I don't know what it is with him...." said Anzu quietly. "Sometimes when I'm around him, I feel this strange feeling inside of me. It's not the same sort of feeling that it was with Atem. Well...I can't explain it. It's the same but it's different." She growled in aggravation, rubbing at her temples. "I mean, when I felt this feeling for the Pharaoh, it was...comforting. I felt safer than I'd ever felt. I knew that he could protect me. I felt like I had a guardian that would fight to the death to keep me safe. But with Seto, it's the opposite. I feel like I'm naked and vulnerable and stripped of all pretenses, but a part of me also feels like he would never take advantage of that weakness. He's too proud to do that." She placed a hand over her heart, closing her eyes. "It's weird, but...I guess with the Pharaoh, I felt like regardless of whether I not I existed, he was somebody that didn't need me or anybody else to fight on, even if he did love me, but I feel around Seto as if I..._could _be needed. But then when we get into an argument and it's a never-ending circle. I do a 180 and want nothing to do with him...It's just...oh...ugh, he just pisses me off so much!" she exploded. Her angry voice echoed in the empty room ominously.

Honda nodded to himself. Kaiba brought out the worst side of her along with the best. Groaning, Anzu let her head fall forward.

"But as I'm yelling at him, with all this rage inside of me, I feel...it's a complicated feeling. I'm angry and I'm...not exactly happy, but I feel...."

"Alive?" he suggested. Anzu nodded.

"Yeah. I feel this rush of adrenaline and I get so pumped up and when we stop arguing and he's away, I'm left with my anger fading away and my heart pumping so fast and my face flushed, and there's butterflies in my stomach and I've never felt so alive before. It's like a high. I don't really think that makes much sense to you, but—"

"No, no, it makes sense," he assured her. "And let me tell you something just between the two of us, I always thought to myself that you and Kaiba would be a better match for one another."

"Really!?"

"Really. Yugi and the Pharaoh need to protect the people that they care about. Which is great, but I don't think you ever realized that you're too proud to be able to take that sort of treatment for very long. You and Kaiba are both have the same sort of pride and temperament, but you complement one another. Balance each other out. Oh, you two would get into arguments all the time, don't get me wrong, but I think that in the aftermath of those fights, you two would actually listen to the words behind the yelling and screaming. You would tell him off for being so removed from human connections and being so cold, and he would demand that you use the backbone that you have to be ambitious, more independent, and to not fall into the damsel in distress thing you always had going on with Atem." Anzu blushed. She knew what he meant. At the peak of her infatuation with the Pharaoh, she would do the most foolish things to get his attention, which usually ended up with her having to be saved.

"But...I...I don't want to break Yugi's heart...." she whispered sadly.

"Anzu, cut the crap," Honda said furiously. "Do you think that he would ever stop being your friend just because you like somebody else? After all that we've been through together? What's worse to you, making your friend upset for a while and have them eventually forgive you, or potentially losing the person that you love and possibly never getting them back?"

He made a point, Anzu realized. Honda gave her a meaningful look. "So, I want you to ask yourself one more time and be completely honest with yourself. Are you sure that you don't have feelings for Kaiba?"

Taking a deep breath, Anzu tried to clear her mind of everything. She was alone. Honda was not beside her, and her confusion and fears were not around...she sat in the silence for a good moment before asking herself a question.

_Am I in love with Seto Kaiba? _

She thought about it. Nothing gave her a straight answer. Everything that she had already said to Honda came back in a puzzling jumble. It wasn't that easy at all, she inwardly sighed.

But then, floating out of the dark recesses of her mind, an image of Seto Kaiba appeared before her. It was from earlier that very day. The memory, like a movie, act itself out seamlessly. They were seated outside, and she was wiping away the tears on her cheeks. He reached into his pocket. The real Anzu was on the sidelines watching this scene captured in time unfold. She looked at his hands. He had long, delicate fingers and perfectly manicured nails, but his hands were not effeminate in the least. They had the air of somebody who worked very hard and who took good care of them. He pressed the handkerchief into her trembling palms and gripped her hands for a brief space in time. Her hands were tiny in his.... Her hands, cradled in his strong, comforting grasp. It was so insignificant, yet so unbelievably meaningful and significant to her, the most important thing that had ever happened in her life. He spoke to her, his voice a low murmur, yet full of the strength that she wished she had, completely intoxicating and infuriating and lovely and horrible and inspiring every sort of emotion that Anzu had ever known in herself.

And then a multitude of her memories with Kaiba rushed forth, blinding her to anything else, filling her senses, making her feel like she was drowning.

At Duelist Kingdom, she saw him fall to Pegasus. There was a sorrowful pain in his face that seemed to be tearing up her insides. She wanted more than anything to go to his side and shield him from the white-haired, laughing man.

And another...

She wanted to scream but couldn't, there was no time, the crate was already descending. In a fluid motion she felt her shackles being freed and somebody hoisting her up and pulling her away. Then the box came down but she was already out of her chair, she was safe, she was alive. She looked at who her savior was, half-expecting it to be the Pharaoh even though Yugi was in a duel... But it was Seto Kaiba. For just one second, he squeezed her closely to him, and then that feeling she always seemed to get about him spread itself out to every corner of her body, and for one crazy moment where she lost all composure and sanity, an overwhelming desire to kiss him took over absolutely... she would have kissed him surely, but it was already too late. The moment had passed. Kaiba let go of her, and whatever glimpse she had past his eyes into his soul was gone. His face was like an impenetrable wall of thick ice guarding all of his human feelings, and it was there that she declared to herself that she hated that jerk, absolutely hated him!

And another....

Kaiba stared straight at Mokuba, who was by Noah Kaiba's side with his eyes blank, mindlessly cheering on the green-haired boy in the duel. And then, all trace of strength washed away from his stance and his facial expression, leaving Seto looking like a tired, lonely little child. Without skipping a beat, he launched himself into a monologue about when he was younger and at one point when he did not know if he had the strength to go on. But it was his brother, it was Mokuba, who gave him that strength. And Seto knew that he could survive this ordeal, because he had to keep on protecting the one person that he held dear to him and who was more important to him than anybody else. He loved Mokuba with all of his heart. And just like that, something snapped inside of the little boy and he was running over to his older brother with a smile on his face and tears of joy running freely down his face. Anzu felt she was nearly going to cry as well, run towards Seto, and shower him with kisses...

And just like that, Anzu came to the stunning realization that she loved Seto Kaiba.

She really, really loved him.

Her heart felt like it was swelling fit to burst, trying to keep everything which she was feeling in check. Her body felt weightless, like a feather about to fly away past the sky and into the cosmos, her mind alit with bright, flashing stars. It was the most incredible feeling of all, realizing just how much she loved Seto.

Honda looked at Anzu. A strange, albeit wonderful sparkle was in her eyes. Her face was glowing like she was basking in full moonlight, her cheeks rosy, a small smile beginning to trace itself on her lips. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought she was an angel.

He laughed a little to himself. His job here was done.

-

o o o o o

-

_**ISF:**__ Whew! That was a doozy! It's weird, but it's harder for me to write about Anzu's feeling for Kaiba than it is vice versa. I guess I just relate more to Kaiba's sort of feeling?_

_I just had to bring in Honda for this chapter! He's my favorite underrated character in the series. He's a fairly smart guy and fights for what he believes in, but he's always getting one-upped by Otogi! (laughs) Don't get me wrong, if I had a heart condition I wouldn't be able to take copious amount of Duke Devlin (he's very pretty. See? He's very pretty. Abridged Series joke, LOL!), but I always root for the underdog. _

_Until next time. Honda forever!_

_**FIN**_


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